[MD] Defining Art (was Churning Point)

[Platt Holden]

SA:

You raise a number of interesting questions, but they seem to boil down to
"How much freedom from others' opinions does each person have in deciding
what is truly high quality art?" Pirsig's answer satisfies me: 

"The reason there is a difference between individual evaluations of 
quality is that although Dynamic Quality is a constant, these static 
patterns are different for everyone because each person has a different 
static pattern of life history. Both the Dynamic Quality and the static 
patterns influence his final judgment. That is why there is some 
uniformity among individual value judgments but not complete 
uniformity." (SODV)

One's "static pattern of life history" includes, of course, one's 
parents, teachers, culture and all the rest. So they all influence 
one's opinion about high quality in art as well as other things. But 
notice Pirsig reserves a role for Dynamic Quality which, in your terms, 
would be judgments "from the heart." It is this that is unique to each 
individual and at the core of an individual's ability to respond to DQ 
and, in the cast of great art, reveal, if only for a moment, the 
Godhead, exemplified by such greats as Michelangelo, Mozart, Velazquez 
and Vermeer. 

Platt

> Platt,
>      I guess my question was trying to delve into your
> opinion of art.  You said earlier as follows:
> 
>      I believe this was Arlo asking you: "Also, for
> the aboriginals (and many westerners as Khaled, I
> think, pointed out) who consider digiderooing "art",
> do you think they are indiscriminatory? Primative?
> Uneducated? What?"
> 
>      You answered:  "Primitive and uneducated."
>                   Wed Feb 15 09:01:09 PST 2006
> 
>      Therefore I was revolving my question around this
> exchange.  Is primitive and uneducated high quality or
> low quality art?  Or could this art also be percieved
> as very freedom oriented, because it does not rely
> upon what other people dogmatize or patternize as the
> mold art needs to fit within, as opposed to a more
> individualized art that is from the heart?  Yet, I do
> wonder how much freedom is involved in digiderooing,
> because of the ancestral songs that maybe are learned,
> yet, how much is also from the heart, individualized? 
> 
>      The fine line seems to be between teacher and
> student.  At least that is where this train of thought
> is going, or I am taking it.  Why might I say this? 
> Well, how much influence does a teacher order upon the
> art student, and how much freedom is granted to the
> art student in any realm of art?  Would that not
> influence the amount of artistic freedom, thus,
> creativity the art student has, even if it is in a
> culture that plays the digiderooing or one that
> teaches the violin?
> 
> SA
> 
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